Wake Up! How to Use the BlackBerry Alarm Software

One measure of a true BlackBerry addict is if they sleep with their BlackBerry on their bedside table. I'm guilty of this myself, but it's mostly because I use the alarm program on my Berry. I find it quick and easy to use, much easier than fiddling with those darn buttons on your clock radio. You know what I'm talking about?

Anyways, in the first screenshot you'll see me hovering over the alarm icon. Click it to get into the program (Yes, I know BrickBreaker, Sokoban, CirclePopper and Ka-Glom are on the screen too... Texas Hold'em King 2 is just out of view as well :P... I'll review those later.)

Once in, it's super easy. Here's a breakdown of the options you can set:

Daily Alarm: Turn this ON or OFF to activate or de-activate the alarm.

Time: Set the time you want the alarm to go off.

Snooze: Want a snooze feature? You can turn this on to 1, 5 and 10 minute options. I've never used it, but I would imagine a lot of people do.

Active on Weekends: Turn this OFF if you do not want your alarm going off on Saturday or Sunday. YES if you want it to go off on the weekend.

Alert Type: Choose from Tone, Vibrate, and Vibrate+Tone. I leave mine on Tone for those early morning wake-ups!

Tune: Select the alarm 'sound' you want to use. Lots of choices here. I use the Alarm_Antelope. It's a bit annoying, but not annoying enough to make me want to throw my blackberry across the bedroom. PERFECT!

Volume: Choose from Low, Medium, High and Escalating. Find out what works best for you. I leave mine on High.

Number of Beeps: Select the number of 'rings' you want your alarm to belt out. Choose from 1, 2 or 3... I leave mine on 3.

Overall I'd have to say the alarm feature is one of the most handy available on the BlackBerry (besides the staples of phone, email and messaging of course!) I use the alarm feature every day and it never fails me... Well, sometimes I don't get out of bed right away but that's my own fault!

Reader comments

Wake Up! How to Use the BlackBerry Alarm Software

i wish 8800 has multi-alarming feature instead just one, like you want the alarm goes off at diff times within a day (I can do this with my Moto V7 phone). Does anyone know how to do this on 8800? please let me know. thanks, jon

I use the alarm not just for the day. But I also change it to suit me on Weekends when I take a siesta.

The only thing I think its lacking that you find on other Windows Mobile devices is that you can't choose the days of the week you want the alarm on as I dont want it going off on weekends when I wake up later than on weekdays. And also setting multiple alarms for the weekend eg., 16:30 for Saturdays and 17:30 for Sundays.

Although I love the Chi_Gong as it is a nice gong sound that makes me feel peaceful and smiling in the morning instead of waking up angry and then being angry or frustrated the whole day.

Is there an option of a "one time" alarm. Like if you need reminded of something and do not want to go through the trouble of setting and then canceling the alarm. I want a "set it and forget it" alarm.

I have a 8130 and the alarm function isn't the greatest. It only sets off the alarm one time. Here is how I got mine to go off until I wake up. Set the snooze button to whatever you prefer, even if you wont use it, and the alarm should go off until you either snooze or dismiss the alarm. Took me a while to figure it out... maybe common knowledge.

The issue I have with my new 8130 is that after I set the alarm, it will not give me an audible alert. In the profile settings, the alarm is not an options among the ones that are listed there. Is there an update or something that will enable the audible alerts to be added to the profile options?

I cant find that on my phone. I am sure I did have it at one time. Does anybody have a clue where it went. I use the Blackberry Pearl 8100. I know its the bottom end but its the only one Fido offers at this time :-(

Full disclosure I work with the Wakeful team, but if you are interested in a new way to wake up, you may want to check out Wakeful BlackBerry Alarm at http://wakeful.com. We wake you up to the local weather, the world's latest breaking news and stock information.

Like it says DO NOT TRUST your blackberry alarm. It is NOT 100% reliable. I have been using it for a little over a year with no problems, and I have been using other phone alarms for a few years prior with no problems, but suddenly yesterday I have a very important meeting, and the alarm just doesn't go off! I checked my settings in case I had set the alarm for 7pm instead of 7am like I meant to, but nope! I checked to make sure that it was set to go off all the time and not just on weekends or something (I don't even think there is just a setting) but that wasn't it! I'd thought MAYBE i was just sleeping like a rock that day and it was a fluke thing and I didn't hear it, except then it happened two days later!! fortunately on that day I happened to wake up by myself 15 minutes after the alarm time, and I noticed that what actually happened is the alarm DID go off (I saw the "snooze/dismiss" dialog box, but for some reason there was no sound! This made me miss a very important meeting the first time this happened, totally embarrassing and nobody is going to excuse you for not showing up because your alarm didn't go off. As a result I have gone out and bought two real alarm clocks with battery backup. I will never trust my blackberry alarm again, and neither should YOU.

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